Wouldnât it?
Blacklivesmatter.carrd.co
#pascalcampion
This shook me to my core
This was so lovely.
But itâs worth mentioning that the second I saw the panel with the cop, my heart dropped, and itâs a shame that this is the initial reaction that I have towards cops interacting with POC
The fact that the notes are filled with non-Black people who suddenly got worried when they saw the cop âŠ.. in an illustrated story.
Now try imagining how hard it is irl for Black mothers, and Black people in general. Each encounter with the police could end with our death, even if we did absolutely nothing wrong.
I think most of us deal with itâbc letâs face it, we have no other choiceâbut Iâd be lying if I said that every single time I come into close proximity to the police, somewhere in the back of my mind there wasnât always the thought: âwhat if âŠâ
âwhat if today is the dayâ ⊠âwhat if this cop had a bad morningâ ⊠âwhat if this cop doesnât like black peopleâ ⊠âwhat if he thinks my phone is a gunâ ⊠âwhat if he thinks Iâm acting suspiciousâ ⊠âwhat if he needs to fill a quotaâ ⊠âwhat if he mistakes me for some nondescript black man but I fit the description anywayâ ⊠âwhat if my car insurance payment didnât go through and I donât know about itâ ⊠âwhat if I have a taillight outâ âŠ. âwhat if he thinks I have a bad attitudeâ ⊠âwhat if it was a rough day for me and I do have a bad attitudeâ ⊠âwhat if thereâs not even any cops around but a white person thinks I look out of placeâ ⊠what if what if what if
Obviously I cannot speak for everyone who is Black, but these thoughts flash through my mind every single time I see a cop. Every time. Maybe it only takes a microsecond, but itâs always there. Always.
LOL. I know we may make it look easy. But yeah, itâs still there.
And even though Iâm very healthy and I manage to ⊠adapt(?) to those fears, I figure that kind of constant on/off stress has gotta be taking some kind of toll on me, right? On Black people in general. Itâs like perpetually unexpected games of Russian roulette. Or maybe like the Spanish Inquisition. (No one ever expects it).
Sometimes I wonder if white people understand the constant extra calculations that Black people are doing continuously as weâre out and about. Calculations for any contingency encounter with the police. Or with some white person who might call the police because theyâve mistaken my melancholy mood for âsuspiciousâ behavior. Calculations that white people donât ever need to do. At least, not because of simply being in the general proximity of the police.
Nice to see that some people âgetâ it.
